Horn hangs on to IT oversight

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Rep. Stephen Horn (R-Calif.) will maintain his oversight of many government information management issues, including information security, as chairman of a new subcommittee on the House Government Reform Committee.

Committee chairman Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) on Thursday created the Government Efficiency, Financial Management and Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee and named Horn as chairman.

Earlier this year, Horn stepped down as chairman of the Government Management, Information and Technology Subcommittee. His departure was mandated because he had served in the position for six years.

The new subcommittee will have oversight of federal agencies' financial accountability, agencies' efficiency, and the government's effectiveness as a whole in working with state and local agencies. Horn has long been interested in these issues, holding many hearings on topics such as the Government Performance and Results Act.

The subcommittee also will handle government information management, including information security. Horn took up leadership of the issue in the House, examining agencies' security after years of attention to the Year 2000 problem. He issued his first set of grades to agencies in September, giving the government an overall grade of D-minus.

Earlier this week, Burton named Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) as chairman of the new Technology and Procurement Policy Subcommittee, which will oversee all other government IT issues and procurement policy, practices and reforms. It and the Government Efficiency, Financial Management and Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee were formed from a split of the Government Management, Information and Technology Subcommittee.

A two-year campaign that prompted the Department of Homeland Security to issue its first-ever emergency directive to agencies to shore up cyber defenses appears in part to have been an attempt to spy on U.S. government internet traffic.